


Shipping Wall

by nidorina



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nidorina/pseuds/nidorina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She would never want her shipping wall to be neglected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shipping Wall

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm looking back on this right now and this was my first Homestuck fic and I have never been more "eeeehhhh" about a fic before. I'd suggest going through the rest of my work if you actually want a sample of my writing; I'm not satisfied with this one anymore.

“Karkat, what are you doing?”

Shit. He froze, still keeping his paintbrush suspended stupidly in the air, and he tried to gather a reasonable excuse. But no one was supposed to find out about this—least of all Terezi, who would never let it go, and yet _had_ to be the one standing in the room's doorway.

“Nothing,” he said quickly, and tried to block what he was doing with his body, as if his gangly frame could cover an entire wall, and as if it would stop her from smelling it. Terezi sniffed at the air and broke into her trademark maniac grin. “I smell red!”

“Get the fuck out of here, Terezi!” Karkat shouted, trying to keep the other troll from coming closer with his arm, pretending there was any stopping her from getting just close enough to sniff at the air and figure out just what he was doing.

“Karkat,” she said slowly, her grin falling. “Is this..?”

He set the paintbrush down on the table beside him and took a step back to look at the wall, as if even he couldn't believe what he had been doing for the past hour. The twelve of them, all drawn in a couple with everyone else twice, and then coupled with all of the kids towards the bottom. Hearts and diamond signs, circles and commends—“purrfect for each other!”, “my favorite meowrail!”, “OTP!!”, “pawsitively ridiculous!”—all painted in a candy red.

“She always took such good care of the shipping wall,” Karkat murmured. He traced the very edge of a square with Vriska and Kanaya (“purrfect, if they'd ever make up their minds!”), hating how obvious it was that someone _else_ had painted in Vriska's new wings, how that made it so much less _hers._

“I didn't think...” his voice shook and he took a deep breath and tried again. “I didn't think that she'd want it being neglected and since she can't take care of it...”

He was _not_ going to cry, he tried to convince himself, not in front of her. He didn't need anything to make the relentless teasing he was sure to go through even worse. But instead Terezi's whole being seemed to deflate and her voice was cracked and hurt when she said, “Oh, Karkat...”

He lost it. His legs gave out form underneath him and Karkat collapsed, his body shaking with sobs and his face streaked with tears, and Terezi was there, kneeling next to him with her arm around his shoulders, whispering that it would be okay, it would be okay... But it wouldn't. She was _gone_ , no more than a broken body, and she had loved him but he had always just avoided it even if she was so sweet and actually kind of adorable, but she was _gone_ and she wasn't coming back, and he couldn't do a damn thing about it...

The next time he went to update the shipping wall, he could hear the familiar click-thump-thump of Terezi walking by the door with her cane.

The noise slowed as it got closer, stopped just outside the door, and then slowly turned to leave him be.


End file.
